Time to Introduce myself

Zephyrbaby

So I've put this off as long as possible so the time as came to introduce myself. My name is Jonathan Robertson but if you ever come across any of my art work or films they would be labelled to Zephyrbaby. So I thought I'll so you some of my work but instead of just listing all my work for the last 5 years and competition work, thought I would show some work that got me somewhere in the last couple of years. This either work that has got me work or it has been shown at shows. Little bit of information on myself. By trade I'm a animator /Concept designer. I got my degree in animation and film but I was more in to the design back ground story then the finish product. I use to have the problem spending too much time on the back story and script then leaving enough time to draw up the animation it self, but this wasn't a bad thing. Because of this my design work improved to the point I was designing t-shirts for people in university. This is how I started to pursue as a designer after leaving university. At the moment I work as a designer at a surf company but I also work free lance for companies designing a range of products. This maybe clothing all the way coming up for conception images for up forth coming films or comics. Lets get this show started shall we?

White Western Eagle

The first set of images I have been working on for the last 3 years. The title of this project is called White Western Eagle. Its had many names in the past but this is one that I have settled on. I came up with this idea in the last year of university. It started as a small idea then it rapidly got out of hand. I remember pitching this idea to the animation tutors, film studies tutor and graphic design tutor. The first thing that left the mouth of the graphic design tutor was "I don't get it..." but to be honest I had no idea why she was there? The other tutors were really concerned that I was taking on too much understanding my pitch. Sadly it was not to be they wanted me to do something else. I agreed but kept this going. At first I had planned this to be a computer game. Realising that this is a big task by myself the easiest way to get it out to the public was to make it in to a Indie game... only problem I don't know how to program or make a computer game. With no real money I wasn't able to pay anybody to help me out. So I took on the task of it been a animated film.... so what is it about?

Well I will not be telling the storyline yet. But do keep watch on Dead Pheasant facebook page and on this page as I will be keeping updates. Hopefully I will be showing my 30 second trailer at the next Bradford Film festival. But until then here are some images of paintings and illustrations from my design work

Mother Nature

Mother Nature was the side project that started it all for me in the design world. I started Mother Nature in my spare time. All I set out to do was to design a couple of hoodies and a couple of T-shirts. I got one made up and wore it about and then before I knew it everyone wanted one from me. I went on to design a collection of Snowboards to go with the textiles. In all I designed a collection of 24 t-shirts and 24 hooded sweat shirts. As a side project Mother Nature is one of my success stories. With getting orders from all round the world I'm really happy. In 2009 I took a trip to New York. I decided to get 10 books of the Mother Nature collection in side them. I left them all around the city. Times square, Central park, Kid Robot NY, Forbidden Planet all over. I left my email address on the back if anybody wanted to see more work. As well there was links to my online portfolios. Two months pass by then I get an email. Somebody found one of my books out side the Kid Robot store and wanted to know if I was interested to take part in a textiles show in London? With emailing back and forth I sent four images to be in the show. The show was only on for a week but it was a start. From this one connection I found out about Jotta.com. Jotta (use to be named Fifzine) is a website that allows up forth coming artists in any field set up a online portfolio and show off their work. From this website companies post job vacancies and work experience placements. So its really useful to know about.

Zine fairs

I'm new to the zine fair scene. I can't say much as I have only done one. It was held at Preston university. At first I didn't get the idea of a zine. To me it was a copy of some ones sketch book and people would pay money to buy books of sketches. At first I thought this was stupid but after looking at a couple that my friend had made or collected in the past I was on board with it. I set out to get prints of some off my best drawings and digital work. I drew up 100 hand made stickers each one different. On the day though I didn't sell much only 1 print of some digital work and she only liked it because I had drew on the back off it. Its the experience that counts I guess.

Designer Toys

I'm a big collector of designer vinyl toys. A lot of them are from the company Kid Robot, been Munny's, Dunny's Tricky's and Raffy's. But I have get a lot of inspiration from these pieces of art work. I normally find new artists through them. Some big artists I have found through years of collecting is Jeff Soto, Sam Flores, Jeremy Fish, Mode 2, and Ashley Wood. Any work from these artist will give any one inspiration. From collecting these toys it makes you think of different ways to design something. I use to be all about digital work and pen drawings. But last couple of years I have started to paint more with acrylics and inks. Not just on paper too. Canvas, wood tiles are just some things have done work on before.

After looking at the company Kid Robot I have discovered other companies and places to gain information inspiration in my work. I have been featured twice as designer toy custom artist of the month on the website Plastic and Plush. First time was a set of Munny's that I had painted. Second time I had customised one of Flying Fortresses bears from his army. I was mentioned on Vinyl news for the set of Munny's I did as well. Before I move on another company that people should go look in too and buy their magazine is Juxtapoz. This magazine is amazing. It tells you what's happening in the art world.... well the art world that is worth knowing about none of this fine art rubbish. Theres always a good read and a good gander to be looked at in each issue published.

http://www.juxtapoz.com/

http://www.kidrobot.eu/

http://plasticandplush.com/

Animation work

Since leaving university I have not done any animating myself. I have designed and came up with ideas for films but not really taken any action on them. Its not a good sign but that's soon changing with White Western Eagle project. The sad truth if not most but all of my class mates have lost all interest in animation all together and all gone in to other professions. As well doing work experience at companies and the advice they use to tell us was to "Give up university" or " don't bother unless you can deal with not having a animation job for the first 5-10 years of pursuing don't bother at all." So any way here is some work that I did in university. None of it is great I warn you now.

So there you have it. I think its time for me to stop rambling on. Keep an watch out on here and the facebook page for updates from me and all the other guys from Dead Pheasant.

Check out my other pages as well. More Work there from the years.

http://www.jrobbo.deviantart.com/

www.jonathanrobertson.jotta.com

Introducing part I: Andy Vine

Hello. Andy Vine here. That's me up there. Or at least I used to look like that, nowadays I'm like a Proper Grown Up with a flat and a dog and everything. I don't tend to have puppets sat on my shoulder any more, but I do have more facial hair and wear tighter trousers. I do still drink tea all the time. I'm an animator by trade, illustrator more by instinct and make a living from neither of those things. I'm not here to talk about how I make my living though.

I came up with this excellent idea the other week, right, that we should all do a blog post introducing ourselves to the Big Wide World by showing off our best pieces of work. A greatest hits set, if you will. Turns out this is quite the undertaking, but I'm man enough. Yeah.

1) Everything Ever

Everything Ever is a project I've been working on for most of the year and have only just finished. I plan to get it printed onto canvas and would like to exhibit it somewhere, but I don't really know how to go about organising that so if you do, spill the beans.

2) The Dog Ate My Homework

My final piece at uni. Two years in the making, believe it or not. Need to get my animating hat back on, it's been too long.

3) The Clock

This is the reason I can't listen to Thom Yorke's solo album any more! It was made for a competition run by D&Ad.

4) Hugtober

Poster for the October '09 tour by Dananananaykroyd. They like hugging, hence Hugtober. This won a prize, hooray! VIP passes to every gig on the tour (we only went to one though). Super ace band, go and see them if only to experience the Wall of Cuddles.

5) Venus Fly Traps

This is my first attempt at a watercolour, composited with a line drawing. Might do some more stuff like this.

6) Caber Tossing

Poster for Everything Everything's gig at the Night and Day cafe in Manchester for last year's In The City. Cracking band, but I didn't actually go to this; my mate Mark was putting on a gig in Centro on the same day and his band Air Cav are better, so ner.

7) Wizard's Sleeve

Mr Phil brews his own beer. Coming soon: Dutch Rudder. I'm drawing a boat.

8) Sadness

Bit of a collaboration between most of us Dead Pheasant types and graphic design king Richard di Blasi. We had a couple of jars then went and drew on Andy Pearse's back, then I spent a couple of days hard editing. Then the band re-recorded the song so they didn't use this in the end. Still got a soft spot for it though.

9) Mechanical Tyrannosaurus Rex

This is a t-shirt design for a band called Kidnapper Bell (who, incidentally, have a song called Everything Ever, the name of which inspired my project up there ^. I hadn't heard the song when I came up with the idea, I just LOVED the name). They sound like firing rockets at T-Rex robots (a bit).

10) Just So You Know

Competition entry, a single sleeve for Just So You Know by Tripwires. As it turns out though, the song isn't about spacemen, so they went for a design with some tasteful lines on and stuff.

So, there we have it. I'm currently working on a few bits and pieces. Just finished a drawing of a mantelpiece for, er, Mantelpiece Productions, currently drafting a new beer label for Mr Phil called Dutch Rudder, and writing a film about a heist that goes badly wrong in a way that no one could predict. Too many ideas in the pipeline, foremost trying to draw in 3-D, and I don't mean like perspective, I mean like green and red glasses.

Other than that, I've recently aquired a taste for making electronic music (all of which can be downloaded for free by clicking on these words) which has in turn inspired an idea for an animated short film, a weird experimental thing where things happen in time with beats and bleeps. I really want to do more animating, not just weird shit but also a more traditional stop motion film about a man whose life is ruled by his teddy bear, which ironically may prove more difficult to make due to not having any time or studio space. I don't want to talk about my day job because it's less than relevant, except to say that I work with some of the most talented and creative people in Manchester.

Wow, that should have been an easy thing to do but was in fact very difficult. Your turn now. I'm Andy Vine, who the hell are you?

Mr Phil's Wizard's Sleeve

A few weeks ago my friend Mr Phil decided to brew his own beer. For the full, gripping story in a Dear Dierdre style photo casebook, go to my personal blog over here. The long and the short of it is that I've made a label for it which looks an awful lot like this:

Cheese on Toast at The Egg

Last night was another art show/party at the Liverpool cafe "The Egg". The theme was 2010, but the theme didn't really effect any of the work. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you wouldn't of guessed the theme from the works but they were all good to look through. To be honest I kinda forgot to take photo's at the show, so all the photos are when people were going or cheese on toast! Check out the pictures and if your in Liverpool, go to The Egg and check out the art.

Zephyrbaby

Art buddies Sam Cookson and Kate McKenna

Zephyrbaby's new work

Hello thought I would get this ball rolling and start to post some art work up. All this work is recent stuff that I have done in the last month or two. I try and not limit myself to one format so there's some digital work here and some fine art stuff too. Just a side note on the pieces done on brown paper, they range from 4ft-6ft. They're drawn and painted on massive pieces of paper that I found at work. For my digital work I normally use photoshop or Brushes on my Ipad.

Hopefully I'll post new work up and images of my travels to various art parties and shows that I go to monthly. In the mean time check out my portfolios...

www.JonathanRobertson.jotta.com and www.jrobbo.deviantart.com

Everything Ever

Dead Pheasant then, eh? This was a big idea that we had at the end of uni and uploaded some things to MySpace back when people used to go on there... However, we moved in as everyone was moving out. You might say we killed MySpace. Less formal than a studio, less pretentious than a collective, we are just people who make things and want to share them with the world. And between us we can't remember the login for that page any more either.

This is the first post on this shiny new Dead Pheasant blog, and it is the end of a project I (Andy Vine, hi) have been working on for about six months now. If you want to see the build up to it, click on these words right here for the saga, but here is the final piece for Everything Ever:

Someone at work suggested the other day that I might not have drawn a picture of everything ever. He was wrong though, I've checked.

More stuff from everyone else soon, but at least now we've made a start, eh?